The Teamster president's incendiary Labor Day language led to a tense showdown on "Fox and Friends"

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September 6, 2011 9:01PM (UTC)

Before Barack Obama began his Labor Day address in Detroit yesterday, Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa Jr. spoke to the Michigan crowd about the Tea Party, and used a little bit of incendiary language in the process: "Let's take these sons of bitches out, and give America back to America."

"Fox and Friends" co-host Gretchen Carlson thought Hoffa crossed the line, and this morning she asked DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz if the statement was inappropriate. The congresswoman refused to take the bait, and the ensuing back-and-forth turned tense, and memorable: When Wasserman Schultz suggested that "Fox and Friends" has rarely, if ever, denounced the rhetoric of the Tea Party, Carlson shot back with: "I sit in the middle of the couch. I"m fair and balanced, Debbie."